[was_hellbanned]

I fail to see how your comment is the least bit relevant.

in the days of Ellis Island and had just enough education to work as bakers and butchers

So in other words, for the time in which they lived, they were pretty skilled.

The immigration system of the old days wasn't meritocratic; it was simply exploitative

That's irrelevant to the parent comments claim that societal meddling has left some population groups behind. It's also irrelevant to my point distinguishing between people who were already here and pushed out, or forcibly brought here, compared to population groups primarily composed of modern, legal immigrants.

However, it doesn't matter. Coming here in "the days of Ellis Island" required a tremendous amount of dedication and daring, and the places they were coming from were likely even worse off. It was self-selecting for driven people.